Uncommon partly-printed DS as president, one page both sides, 9 x 13.5, July 8, 1939. President Roosevelt pardons a Prohibition violator, in part: "Albert A. Reading was convicted in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania of conspiracy (Section 37, United States Criminal Code) to violate the National Prohibition Act, and on November twenty-fourth, 1933, was sentenced to imprisonment for eighteen months and to pay a fine of One hundred dollars…I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America…do hereby grant unto the said Albert A. Reading a full and unconditional pardon for the purpose of restoring his civil rights." Signed at the conclusion by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and countersigned by Acting Attorney General Thurman Arnold. The red Department of Justice seal affixed to the lower left remains intact. In very good condition, with a short tear to the left edge, and overall wrinkling and associated dampstaining.
The 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution (ratified 1919, effective 1920) prohibited the manufacture, sale, transport, import, or export of alcoholic beverages. The National Prohibition Act, commonly called the Volstead Act for Rep. Andrew Volstead who introduced it, was passed in 1919 to enforce the 18th Amendment. Among its provisions were penalties for violation of the amendment. In 1932, presidential candidate Roosevelt had promised to work for the repeal of prohibition and on December 5, 1933, nine months after his inauguration, the 21st Amendment, repealing the 18th Amendment, became part of the U.S. Constitution.
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